The Government's Sale of Alcohol Bill will bring an "enormous cost" on Ireland.
That's among the findings of a report analysing the document which aims to allow pubs and clubs stay open for longer.
A group representing nightlife, particularly music, venues has called for the change to go through with a review.
Give us the Night also says tweaks and fine tuning can happen later.
We have kicked off our #saleofalcoholbill event launched by @LordMayorDublin - full statement and report here https://t.co/ilGIHp1vAE pic.twitter.com/33ftb9y1gi
— AlcoholActionIreland (@AlcoholIreland) May 9, 2023
Intoxication
This analysis is by Professor Tom Babor of the Public Health Sciences Department at the University of Connecticut.
He’s argued Ireland needs to amend the proposed law in order to avoid "epidemics of public intoxication."
Consultant herpetologist, Frank Murray, from Alcohol Action Ireland, is worried about the impact on hospitals:
"The analysis would suggest that the demand for ambulances and the demand for emergency care will increase with increased alcohol consumption."
Positive Public
Despite that, these people on the streets of Dublin are mostly positive about it:
"Ye, you get to stay out longer, have more fun," one woman told us.
Another person said he could see "some good and some bad," from it.
Finally, a third woman said "three o'clock is far too early for something to be closing."
She added that she often gets stuck out until 5 or 5:30 waiting for a taxi home in any way.
Review
Sunil Sharpe from the Give us the Night campaign, and has called for the laws to change and a review after a set period to see the real world affects:
"This is something that all governments in the past when they amended licensing laws didn't do."
"Let's learn from those mistakes and review the laws," he said.
Sunil concluded, "we think reviewing those laws within a two year period will be more than fair."
Back when the bill was approved by Cabinet last October, it was described as a "modernising" of 200 year old laws.
